CHALLENGING THE CONCEPT OF CULTURAL DEFICIT THROUGH A FRAMEWORK OF CRITICAL-BASED EDUCATION

The paper Challenging the Concept of Cultural Deficit Through a Framework of Critical-Based Education by Mike Fox, Limerick School of Art and Design, Limerick Institute of Technology, is published in the scientific educational journal Pedagogy. It is part of a series of papers on Special and Inclusive Education started as a partnership between GLOBI and Pedagogy.

Abstract. Marginalised, disadvantaged students ﬁnd the habitus of western, higher education institutions most unwelcoming. Central to the difﬁculties, which they experience, is the deﬁcit-based compensatory model of widening participation applied to non-traditional learners. This model is reflected in the “culture of poverty” hypothesis favoured by neo-liberal institutions as the means of “ﬁxing” the problems experienced by learners from disadvantaged backgrounds. Culture of poverty suggests people from lower socio-economic backgrounds share a series of universally consistent values and behaviours and places responsibility for the difﬁculties, experiences by these individuals, with the individuals themselves and their communities rather than any systemic failings.
Dealing with the problems experienced by those on the margins of society requires removing the deﬁcit paradigm and replacing it with an asset-based structure, grounded in critical learning practices.

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Mike Fox is Head of Design Department at the Limerick School of Art and Design. Currently involved in PhD research into designing student centred, higher education programmes for non-traditional learners, he is also a member of the EQ Arts Quality Assurance Experts Panel and Member of the Editorial and Review Board of the Athens Journal of Humanities and Arts.